Police at Wellington International Airport yesterday forced a New Zealand Airlines passenger to disembark from the aircraft after refusing to watch the safety video video and read safety card delivered to flight attendants.
The plane from Wellington to Oakland was forced to return to the gate before taking off. The woman was dropped after she ignored the attempts of the flight attendants and some passengers to convince her to watch the video on safety instructions, which is displayed on all flights before departure.
"Since the start of the video and alerting the passengers to the passengers by looking at the safety card, the woman opened a book she was looking at and then used her mobile without paying attention to the video," one passenger said.
The passenger pointed out that a hostess had spoken to her and asked her to focus on the video and listen to the safety instructions.
"The flight attendant was very nice and patient, and I repeated her request to the lady to focus more than once, but the passenger completely ignored her," he said.
The woman's behavior disrupted the flight, prompting some passengers to appeal to the video, but she insisted on refusing.
New Zealand Airlines said the pilot was eventually forced to return to the gate, where airport police were called in to force the woman off the plane and not complete the flight because she refused to obey the crew's instructions.